Swimming is a superb full-body exercise and some of the well-liked leisure and aggressive sports activities. However as swimming good points recognition, so do overuse accidents, particularly within the shoulders.
What Is Swimmer’s Shoulder?
Swimmer’s shoulder refers to points within the shoulder brought on by repetitive actions and overuse. Aggressive swimmers can transfer their arms as much as 30,000 occasions per week, typically swimming as much as 50 miles or extra. That’s lots of stress on the shoulder joint!
The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint, made up of three outstanding bones:
- The scapula (shoulder blade)
- The humerus (higher arm bone)
- The clavicle (collarbone)
It’s a really cellular joint, which helps swimmers transfer freely, nevertheless it’s additionally naturally unstable. That’s the place the rotator cuff is available in. This group of muscle mass maintains the shoulder’s stability and contributes to all 4 swimming strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly.
Regardless that swimmers practice in all strokes, most of their time is spent swimming freestyle.
What Causes Swimmer’s Shoulder?
A number of elements can contribute to shoulder ache in swimmers. These fall into two teams:
Intrinsic (Contained in the Physique) Components:
- Weak or fatigued rotator cuff muscle mass
- Imbalance between the inner and exterior shoulder rotation vary of movement
- Poor core and trunk stability
- Weak spot in shoulder or again endurance
When shoulder muscle mass turn into drained, they’ll’t carry out their job successfully. This could result in impingement, the place tendons get pinched contained in the joint.
Extrinsic (Exterior the Physique) Components:
- Poor method (like incorrect hand entry)
- Not warming up correctly earlier than follow
- Swimming greater than 15-20 hours per week
- Previous shoulder accidents
- Excessive coaching hundreds with out correct relaxation
Analysis exhibits that swimmers who log over 21 miles per week are 4 occasions extra prone to develop shoulder tendon issues, particularly within the supraspinatus tendon, one of many rotator cuff muscle mass.